...THE CONCEPTS OF LITERATURE IN WESTERN AND ISLAMIC TRADITION By NUR 'ABIDAH ABD SAMAD Literature can be defined as a man’s creation using fictional quality, described with language, in order to serve certain purposes. Literature entails a vast array of forms including prose, novel, drama and poetry. This discussion covers the concepts of literature in the Western and Islamic tradition. To further explore the above dichotomy, this paper identifies the unifying function of both literatures as enhancing knowledge of self. Besides, this essay also clarifies the function of literature as a didactic instrument of teaching from both different traditions. In addition, by comparing these two traditions, there is a clear explication of the elements of fantasy and reality infused in both literary traditions. Lastly, this essay concludes with the value-judgment of evaluating good or bad literature. Muhammad Qutb defines ‘Islamic literature’ as literature written by people belonging to Muslim writers as well as works by non-Muslim writers who deal with Islamic values in their views (M. Badawi, 1993, p. 50). Islamic conception of literature is significantly derived from the very first word of the Qur’anic revelation iqra’, an instruction to read, followed by the word ‘al-Qalam’ which carries the meaning that reads: “it was God who taught man with pen” (96: 4), which indicates the ultimate role of reading and knowledge to Muslim...
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...Hispanic and Latino Spiritual Paper ENG/301 December 14, 2015 Hispanic and Latino Spiritual Paper I have a better comprehension and appreciation of the Hispanic and Latino culture, after reading the material this week. This culture has their way of communicating with one another. Within the Hispanic and Latino cultures we repeatedly see magic, religion, faith and tradition play big parts in their lives. In this essay, I will discuss four of the stories that I feel show how these elements play a part in their day to day lives. I have chosen four pieces, “Curving Woman,” by Alejandro Morales, “Seven Long Times,” by Piri Thomas, “Tales Told under the Mango Tree, “ by Judith Ortiz Cofer and last but not least, “The Kite,” by Ed Vega. Religion, Faith, Tradition, and Magic As I stated the Hispanic and Latino cultures rely on religion, faith, traditions and magic. I saw this in the writing, “The Curing Woman” by Alejandro Morales. This story is about Mr.Benidorm, the man of the house, impregnated a servant, and had a daughter. Once the servant's time had been served, she requested to take her daughter, Marcelina, with her. Mrs.Benidorm refused the Marcelina to go with her mother. “She had grown to love Marcelina and besides, the child was a reminder to her husband of his sins of infidelity.” (Morales, 1986). This nine-year-old girl spent the next four years with Mr. and Mrs. Benidorm and never seeing her mother during this time. Then at thirteen years...
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...all literary types. Scholars generally agree that poetry in Albania suffered a greater influence from socialist realism rather than prose, unlike Kosovo, where prose was more exposed to changes from this art-leveler method. 3.1 Development of poetry One of the main reasons why socialist realism influenced more the Albanian poetry was related to the fact that this literary genre was considered a follower of partisan songs. Since they were the strongest expression of liberation cause, partisan songs embedded in the recipient, thus conveying psychological and propaganda effects. As Milazim Krasniqi explains "lyrics of partisan songs written by Andrea Varfi, Fatmir Gjata, Kole Jakova, Qamil Buxheli, Shefqet Musaraj, and even Mehmet Shehu and Shefqet Peci, began the process of changing the function of the aesthetic text and promoted that as an exclusively ideological function" (Krasniqi, 2005, p. 164). This feature propaganda function spread through poetry prevailed in a powerful way,...
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...Introduction to Chinese Literature China possesses one of the world's major literary traditions. Its texts have been preserved for over 3,000 years. Reverence for the past has influenced the preservation of these cultural sources, and may have influenced the invention of woodblock printing in the 9th century and moveable type printing in the 12th century. The practice of collecting and reproducing libraries has also played a major role in the transmission of literary tradition. Most important, China can boast an unbroken cultural tradition based on the Chinese script as a language — a written medium — independent of spoken dialectic difference. As literary language became increasingly removed from spoken language, it became less vital and literature took a natural turn toward imitation. Indeed, after the formative classical period that began with Confucius, the literary history of China becomes one of imitation-with-variations of different models. Literature also thus becomes more elitist, for an understanding or appreciation of a text may require familiarity with the models being alluded to. The principal genre of Chinese literature is poetry; early folk songs established the shi (shih) form that crystallized during the Han dynasty and dominated for the next 1,200 years. Beginning with the simple complaints and longings expressed in rhymed couplets of folk songs, this form gradually became more and more complex, or "regulated," until it took years of study to master its formal...
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...Philippine Literature in English I. Pre-Colonial Period - Consisted of early Filipino literature passed down orally; oral pieces have a communal authorship – it was difficult to trace the original author of the piece since oral literature did not focus on ownership or copyright, rather on the act of storytelling itself; - Many oral pieces became lost in the wave of the new literary influence brought about by the Spanish colonization; however, according to the Philippine Literature: A History & Anthology, English Edition (Lumbera, B. & Lumbera C.), the pre-colonial period of Philippine literature is considered the longest in the country’s history; - Literature in this period is based on tradition, reflecting daily life activities such as housework, farming, fishing, hunting, and taking care of the children as well; - Oral pieces told stories which explained heroes and their adventures; they attempted to explain certain natural phenomena, and, at the same time, served as entertainment purposes; - Pre-colonial literature showed certain elements that linked the Filipino culture to other Southeast Asian countries (e.g. oral pieces which were performed through a tribal dance have certain similarities to the Malay dance); - This period in Philippine literature history represented the ethos of the people before the arrival of a huge cultural influence – literature as a cultural tradition, than...
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...American Ethnic Literature ENG/301 April M Lee October 15, 2012 Dr .Greg Beatty Literature came about many decays ago we use Literature to define the genre: humor, poetry, drama, plays, science- fiction and more. You also can use literature for was the ethnicity reason such as; French literature, and English literature and many more other ethnicity. In this paper I am going to talk about the American ethnic literature, American literature American, literary canon and many more different topics. American ethnic literature is a difficult subject to define because there is no single ethnic type of American when it comes to talking about the American ethic literature in this world. Americans are all made up from the people, who came to the United States. We as American makes the ethnicity part of literature by combine the different culture from all over the states. During the found of the nations there were a lot of groups of immigrants that had come to add their talent to our country. (Ethnic American Literature, 2000) The Irish was the largest group that had came in the early part of the 1800s. The Asia brought the culture over around the 1960s to share their talent and beliefs. All of them came together by bring their different skills, way they be thinking and beliefs to show everyone how they was different from the mainstream of the Americans, and by challenging different...
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...Romanticism (literature), a movement in the literature of virtually every country of Europe, the United States, and Latin America that lasted from about 1750 to about 1870, characterized by reliance on the imagination and subjectivity of approach, freedom of thought and expression, and an idealization of nature. The term romantic first appeared in 18th-century English and originally meant “romancelike”—that is, resembling the fanciful character of medieval romances. II ORIGINS AND INSPIRATION By the late 18th century in France and Germany, literary taste began to turn from classical and neoclassical conventions (see Classic, Classical, and Classicism). Inspiration for the romantic approach initially came from two great shapers of thought, French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau and German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. A The Romantic Spirit Rousseau established the cult of the individual and championed the freedom of the human spirit; his famous announcement was “I felt before I thought.” Goethe and his compatriots, philosopher and critic Johann Gottfried von Herder and historian Justus Möser, provided more formal precepts and collaborated on a group of essays entitled Von deutscher Art und Kunst (Of German Style and Art, 1773). In this work the authors extolled the romantic spirit as manifested in German folk songs, Gothic architecture, and the plays of English playwright William Shakespeare. Goethe sought to imitate Shakespeare's free and untrammeled style...
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...University of Phoenix Material Literary Masterpieces Matrix Complete the following matrix for each of the cultural periods that are shown. Provide examples from at least two (2) literary works to illustrate your entries in each category. If discussing contemporary literature, for example, a thematic focus might be relationship of mainstream with minority literatures and your examples incorporate Rushdie' and Cronin's works. Your entries in these columns must go beyond a few words or a simple bullet point. There is no required minimum word length, but you must go into sufficient detail to demonstrate your comprehension of these literary components. This assignment is designed to be completed throughout the course. It is easier to complete when approached this way; it also functions better as a foundation for your Learning Team paper—The Literary Masterpiece in Contemporary Society Paper—due in Week Five. Note. Ancient and classical literature are grouped together in the first week's readings, but they are separated here to sharpen your understanding of the distinctions between the two periods. | |Thematic Focus |Literary Qualities |Shared Characteristics |Influence of Earlier | | | | | |Periods | |Ancient Literature |The book of Genesis has |Genesis is mainly written |Both books are heavily...
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...Psychoanalytic literary criticism Psychoanalytic literary criticism refers to literary criticism which, in method, concept, theory, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalytic reading has been practiced since the early development of psychoanalysis itself, and has developed into a rich and heterogeneous interpretive tradition. It is a literary approach where critics see the text as if it were a kind of dream. This means that the text represses its real (or latent) content behind obvious (manifest) content. The process of changing from latent to manifest content is known as the dream work, and involves operations of concentration and displacement. The critic analyzes the language and symbolism of a text to reverse the process of the dream work and arrive at the underlying latent thoughts. Freud wrote several important essays on literature, which he used to explore the psyche of authors and characters, to explain narrative mysteries, and to develop new concepts in psychoanalysis (for instance, Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva and his influential readings of the Oedipus myth and Shakespeare's Hamlet in The Interpretation of Dreams). His followers and later readers, such as Carl Jung and Jacques Lacan, were avid readers of literature as well, and used literary examples as illustrations of important concepts in their work (for instance, Lacan argued with Jacques Derrida over the interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Purloined...
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...What makes American literature American? America has long been fans of the superior writers, such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald for their various works including “The Great Gatsby” and “The Old Man in the Sea”, America has been known for its fondness of short stories. American literature aims to embody the values and morals of the American culture. The foundation of American values include the rights to liberty, justice, freedom, equality, love, and family, American literature usually will be centered in one or more of these ideals. American literature incorporates the story of an American character and their encounters with the land and the people, exemplifying the human need to control and understand their environment. “Whitman emerges here both as an exemplar of the dominant literary theory and as a precursor of our contemporary value schema, with its enshrinement of the "me" (San Francisco Chronicle (Pre-1997 Fulltext)). Whitman was known for his fresh perspectives of the past and domination of literary theories. What is literary canon? How does literary canon relate to what is going on in society? Literary canons are the classifications of books and their influence upon the culture and society of a specific region or country. Literary canons outline the influential literature of a culture, society, country, or secular community. Society looks to literary canons to understand cultural influence and to research the issues that are most important to the people of the country...
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...INTRODUCTION Literature, in its wide range of sense, it is a written work of any single body. Literature is writing that is considered to be an art form. It is used to refer to all written account, though living at or belonging to the same time definitions extend the term to include text that are spoken or sung. “Literature is a process of producing grand, beautiful, well – ordered lies that tell more truth than any assemblage of facts, by Julian Barnes”. Literature is a Latin word, originated in the southern Mesopotania of Sumar C. 3200. Literature usually means works of poetry and prose that are especially well written. There are many kinds of literature, such as poetry, plays or novels. They also put into groups through their language,...
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...Famous people and works Ancient Greek society placed considerable emphasis on literature and, according to many, the whole Western literary tradition began there, with the epic poems of Homer. In addition to the invention of the epic and lyric forms of poetry, though, the Greeks were also essentially responsible for the invention of drama, and they produced masterpieces of both tragedy and comedy that are still reckoned among the crowning achievements of drama to this day. Indeed, there is scarcely an idea discussed today that has not already been debated and embroidered on by the writers of ancient Greece. The epic poems attributed to Homer are usually considered the first extant work of Western literature, and they remain giants in the literary canon for their skillful and vivid depictions of war and peace, honor and disgrace, love and hatred. Hesiod was another very early Greek poet and his didactic poems give us a systematic account of Greek mythology, the creation myths and the gods, as well as an insight into the day-to-day lives of Greek farmers of the time. The fables of Aesop represent a separate genre of literature, unrelated to any other, and probably developed out of an oral tradition going back many centuries. Sappho and, later, Pindar, represent, in their different ways, the apotheosis of Greek lyric poetry. The earliest known Greek dramatist was Thespis, the winner of the first theatrical contest held at Athens in the 6th Century BCE. Choerilus, Pratinas...
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...WHAT LITERARY DEVICES ARE USED BY SHAKESPEARE TO PUT FORTH HIS IDEAS IN SONNET-130? IS HE COMPLETELY ANTI-PETRARCHAN? [16] 1st part The language spoken and written of great romances is often poetic, passionate, and filled with metaphors of beauty and devotion. In short, the language of love is the language of exaggeration. William Shakespeare ‘s most powerful description of love is when he satirizes this method of writing and in so doing instead claims that honesty and sincerity are the greatest literary devices when speaking the language of love. Shakespeare's sonnet number 130 demonstrates this. This sonnet hooks the reader from the very outset while maintaining sonnet structure and using literary devices as a source of irony. Shocking the reader by using an unconventional method of satire to introduce a topic is the most effective way to hook an audience. Shakespeare begins his sonnet with the line; "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun -" (line 1). The reader immediately becomes curious to the poet’s reasoning for speaking in this tone. The first quatrain of this poem introduces the topic of beauty.The second quatrain enhances the topic and adds sentiment. In the first quatrain he describes the looks of his mistress, while in the second quatrain he relates how these looks affect him. The third quatrain releases this sentiment, the narrator concludes that he is aware of the ordinary nature of his mistress. The sonnet also satirizes literary devices...
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...Criticism 20th Century schools of literary criticism: *1* Formalism: الشكلية It is a school of literary criticism and literary theory. It has only to do with the structural purposes of a text. These features include not only grammar and syntax but also literary device such as meter. The formalistic approach reduces the importance of a text’s historical biographical and cultural context. Formalism rose the literary attention in the early 20th century as a reaction to Romanist theory of literature, which centre on the artist and individual creative genius and instead placed the text itself back into the spotlight, to show how the text was indebted to forms and other works that had preceded it. Two schools of formalism developed. “Russian formalism and New criticism”. *2* New Criticism: النقد الجديد An approach to literature made popular between 1940 and 1960 that evolved out of formalism criticism. New critics suggested that detailed analysis of the language of a literary text can uncover important logics of meaning in that work. New criticism consciously down plays the historical influences, authorial intentions, and contexts that surround text in order to focus on explication extremity close textual and analysis critics such as John Crowe Ranson, I.A.Richard and Robert Penn are commonly associated with New Criticism *3* structuralism: البنوية It is a critical theory that emphasizes the fact that all the elements of culture must be understood...
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...WHAT LITERARY DEVICES ARE USED BY SHAKESPEARE TO PUT FORTH HIS IDEAS IN SONNET-130? IS HE COMPLETELY ANTI-PETRARCHAN? [16] 1st part The language spoken and written of great romances is often poetic, passionate, and filled with metaphors of beauty and devotion. In short, the language of love is the language of exaggeration. William Shakespeare ‘s most powerful description of love is when he satirizes this method of writing and in so doing instead claims that honesty and sincerity are the greatest literary devices when speaking the language of love. Shakespeare's sonnet number 130 demonstrates this. This sonnet hooks the reader from the very outset while maintaining sonnet structure and using literary devices as a source of irony. Shocking the reader by using an unconventional method of satire to introduce a topic is the most effective way to hook an audience. Shakespeare begins his sonnet with the line; "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun -" (line 1). The reader immediately becomes curious to the poet’s reasoning for speaking in this tone. The first quatrain of this poem introduces the topic of beauty.The second quatrain enhances the topic and adds sentiment. In the first quatrain he describes the looks of his mistress, while in the second quatrain he relates how these looks affect him. The third quatrain releases this sentiment, the narrator concludes that he is aware of the ordinary nature of his mistress. The sonnet also satirizes literary devices...
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